Furze Platt Senior School on road to brighter future with solar power initiative

A community-backed renewable energy initiative has allowed Furze Platt Senior School to generate one-third of its electricity from solar power.

The £248,000 investment in 448 solar panels, installed on buildings across the school site, was praised at a talk in the school’s theatre on November 02.

As an added benefit, investors who purchased shares in the project also receive a portion of the surplus energy created and given to the National Grid.

MaidEnergy, the organisation behind the initiative, was formed in 2010 as a group to promote locally owned renewable energy and cutting carbon emissions.

Furze Platt Senior School headteacher, Dr Andrew Morrison, said:

“This investment helps Furze Platt Senior School become more sustainable, providing renewable energy at a reduced cost to the school.

“Thank you to everyone who supported this initiative. We still have more to do, and I am keen to see us develop as an even more sustainable school.”

Other schemes MaidEnergy has backed include solar panels at Norden Farm and a ground source heat pump at Thames Valley Athletics Centre.

MaidEnergy co-chair, Leah Robson, said:

“We’d like to thank the school for trusting us with this – our biggest project to date.

Thanks also go to the Climate Partnership CIC, our Community Enterprise and Photon Energy for all their work in making it happen, and the benefits are already being seen with massive cost savings at a time of tight budgets.”